Chocolate Swirls and Murder

by K E O'Connor

  “This is insane,” Dennis said. “I’m innocent.”

  I stood with Alice and Meatball as Dennis was marched to the black SUV and shoved inside.

  She turned and tightly hugged me. “We did it! We found the murderer. We’ve cracked the case. Campbell will be so proud of me.”

  “So proud of us, don’t you mean?”

  She stepped back. “You know what I mean. This will show him that I can achieve anything.”

  “And why do you want to impress Campbell so badly?”

  She nudged me with her elbow. “Because I want him to think well of me. There’s nothing wrong with that.” She smoothed her hands over her crumpled silk skirt.

  “Of course not. So long as that’s all it is, and it’s not because you have a little crush on your security guard.”

  “What crush? I don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s not as if I could marry him. Mommy would never allow it. She’d say he wasn’t appropriate.”

  “You told me once that you’d only ever marry for love. If that’s the case, surely status isn’t important.” I was teasing her, but only gently.

  “Stop making things difficult.” She smacked me on the back of the arm. “It’s time to celebrate.”

  “Before we do that, why don’t we take a look at this laptop and see why it’s so important,” I said. “Maybe why it was worth killing over.”

  “Do you think we should? It could be crucial to the investigation.”

  “Put on a pair of these.” I handed her some blue plastic food preparation gloves. “If we wear them, we won’t disturb any evidence on the laptop.”

  “You’re so clever, Holly. I’d have been jabbing away at the keys for hours before I even thought about fingerprints. You’ve clearly watched a lot more TV cop dramas than I have.”

  I grinned as I opened the laptop carefully. “One or two. Although I like my mysteries in book form. Give me an Agatha Christie and I’m more than happy.”

  “Oh yes, she’s very good.”

  There was an hour of battery power on the laptop when I fired it up. That would give us enough time to have a look and see what was on here.

  I pulled out my phone and called Saracen. “We’ve got the laptop.”

  “Good work, Holly. Bring it back here.”

  “Any chance you can get your cyber geeks to access it remotely? There’s a password protecting it, and we can’t get in.”

  There was a pause. “You’re not supposed to be tampering with evidence.”

  “We’re wearing gloves,” I said. “It’s all above board. And, guess where we found the laptop?”

  “Exactly where I said it would be?”

  I lifted my gaze to the ceiling. “Even better. Dennis Lambeth had it on his food truck. It’s parked on Threadneedle Lane. He’s the killer.”

  There was silence for a second. “You were seen leaving the castle with Princess Alice on a tandem bike. Please tell me you didn’t get her involved in this.”

  “Alice is more than capable of looking after herself. I got a first-hand demonstration of just how lethal she can be.”

  “Even so, I had to pull two men from castle security to go after her.”

  “You’re missing the good news. We found the laptop. Dennis put on a great show of pretending as if he’d never seen it before, but he has to be involved.”

  A heavy sigh slid down the phone. “Dennis showed up?”

  “And he was apprehended by the excellent backup you sent after Princess Alice. The case is almost solved. So, stop telling me off and put me through to your cyber geeks so we can get this thing open and find out what’s so important about it.”

  Saracen grunted. “We’re going to have words about this.”

  “Be angry with me later. Let’s find out why Dennis killed Pete.”

  “Patching you through now.” A phone connected and was picked up after five rings.

  “Good morning, caller. Your identification has been cleared.”

  “It has? Oh! Um ... that’s good to hear. I’m Holly. What’s your name?”

  “You don’t need my name. Give me the IP address of the laptop.”

  I wasn’t sure how to find that out, but after a few helpful instructions from the mysterious woman on the other end of the line, I discovered it and read it back to her.

  “One moment please.”

  Within seconds, the mouse was moving on its own on the laptop screen.

  Alice nudged me, and I shifted over to make room for her as we watched the cyber security expert get to work.

  “This is like working with a secret agent,” she whispered. “What’s that character in the Bond movies called? The one with all the gadgets?”

  “Bond has got nothing on us,” the woman on the other end of the line said. “This is real life. Things get deadly.”

  Alice stifled a giggle behind her hand. “She’s very serious.”

  “Saving lives is always a serious business, Princess.”

  I raised my eyebrows at her and grinned.

  “The laptop is now accessible. All files are available to you.”

  “Thanks for your help,” I said. “Where should I send the thank you card to?”

  The call disconnected. Being an elusive security geek must mean you had to have a sense of humor bypass.

  “Where shall we start?” Alice asked.

  “Let’s take a look through Pete’s files.” I skimmed through the files but didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. It was a bit of a mess, lots of old invoices stuck on the desktop, nothing in order, and letters from years ago.

  “There’s nothing exciting in here,” Alice said.

  “He’s hardly going to have a file named ‘devious plan to murder Pete Saunders’ for us to find. Let’s check out his web history. That might be more interesting.”

  I took a couple of minutes to search back through everything Pete had been looking at over the last month. Again, nothing stuck out as strange.

  “He was planning a vacation to Australia,” Alice said. “Look, he was checking out flight times and costs.”

  I scrolled through more of the history. There was nothing there.

  An instant message appeared in the corner of the computer screen. I opened it.

  You have access to Pete’s bank account.

  The login details appeared a second later.

  “These cyber geeks know what they’re doing.” I pulled up Pete’s bank login page and keyed in the details.

  A brief scan of the information showed nothing amiss. Regular money coming in and going out.

  “Here’s a monthly payment going out to Ricky Stormy. That must be for the loan Pete took out.” I tapped my fingers on the table. “Ricky claimed that Pete wasn’t paying him back. This shows that wasn’t true.”

  “Why lie about that?” Alice asked.

  “Maybe there was a second loan,” I said. “Pete might have needed money in an emergency and got in trouble when he couldn’t pay it back as quickly as Ricky demanded.”

  Alice sat back and sighed. “I was hoping something exciting would show up on the laptop. The reason Dennis stole it. Maybe naughty pictures of Dennis with a married woman, or something like that.”

  I rubbed the end of my nose. I’d been hoping for the same thing. Not the smutty pictures, but a clear reason Dennis felt he had to kill Pete. This wasn’t much help. I shut down the laptop and closed the lid.

  “Let’s take this to the experts. And we need to get back to the castle and grill Dennis about what the laptop was doing in his possession.”

  Alice clapped her hands together. “How exciting! My first proper interrogation. I can go to the dungeon and get finger clamps.”

  I glanced at her. She was alarmingly keen to hurt someone. “Let’s wait before we use the finger clamps. We can start by asking some simple questions.”

  “And if he doesn’t answer them? Can I bring out the clamps?”

  “We’ll negotiate on that point.” I grabbed the bik
e and headed over to the SUV with Alice and Meatball.

  Sometimes, I wondered about her thirst for all things gruesome. If she wasn’t talking about lopping off someone’s head, she wanted to use medieval torture devices on suspects.

  I knew how to pick some seriously weird friends. But why not? It made my life more interesting.

  Alice bounced on her toes and giggled. “Let’s get interrogating.”

  Chapter 15

  “We should be in that room asking the questions.” Alice stood with her hands on her hips as she stared down the giant security guard who blocked our way.

  “This is for your safety, Princess.” Kace Delaney stood in front of the closed door his colleague, Mason Sloane, had walked through with Dennis a few moments ago.

  “We made the arrest,” Alice said. “We must be allowed to interrogate him. Saracen said we could.”

  “Princess, leave that to us. We’ve gotten all the information we need from you.” Kace cast a worried look at me as if hoping I’d intervene and remove Alice before she caused trouble.

  During the short trip back to the castle in the SUV, I’d filled the security guards in on everything we’d discovered. They’d contacted Saracen and updated him. He’d arranged to have Dennis questioned, along with an investigation of the laptop and a search of the food truck. At no point was it suggested that Alice or I could question Dennis.

  “I can order you to let us into that room,” Alice said. “And why did you take Dennis into the saloon, anyway? Surely he’d be better in the dungeon. It’s where we have all the best torture devices.”

  Kace cleared his throat. “We’ll move the suspect if necessary. Although I’m hoping we won’t need to resort to torture to get the answers.”

  I tugged gently on Alice’s sleeve. “Why don’t we let them question Dennis for now?”

  “Where’s the fun in that?” she asked. “We did the hard work, and they get the credit.”

  “Saracen knows what’s going on,” I said. “We can always take over if they can’t manage.” I winked at Kace.

  “I suppose we do need to celebrate.” Alice’s eyes lit up, and she turned to me. “Have you got any of those strawberry scones with that incredible lavender infused fresh cream? I had two yesterday. They were delicious. It’s the perfect food to celebrate our victory.”

  “Of course. Let’s head to the kitchen and see what we can find.” I was relieved how easy it was to distract Alice. She was happy now fresh cream scones were on the agenda.

  “I love your scones. I’ve never had a nicer one. Even when I went to Cornwall. I tried a dozen different scones on my visit. None of them were a patch on yours.”

  “That’s good to know.” We walked alongside each other, heading to the kitchen. “And now Dennis has been caught, I’m out of danger. That’s even more reason to celebrate.”

  “Oh! I can’t guarantee that,” Alice said. “Granny didn’t give me a timeline. Your life could still be at risk.”

  My heart stuttered. That was reassuring to know.

  The kitchen was bustling with lunchtime activity as we walked in. Chef Heston glared at me, but his gaze shifted to Princess Alice.

  He shook his head. “Let me guess, you’re still on official castle business? I suppose it’s too much to ask that you do some work around here today?”

  “I’ll stay late tonight if anything needs finishing up,” I said. “I won’t let you down.”

  “And we must celebrate,” Alice said. “We just caught a killer.”

  Chef Heston’s expression morphed into one of disbelief. “Congratulations.”

  “We’ll have scones and tea all round,” Alice said. “Everyone’s welcome to join us.”

  “We’d better not disturb the rest of the kitchen staff,” I said swiftly as Chef Heston’s face turned an unhealthy puce.

  “Take your food outside, so you don’t get under the feet of people who are actually working,” he muttered.

  “Yes, Chef,” I said. He caught hold of my arm as I hurried to the chiller cabinet for the cream. “Don’t think your friendship with the Princess means you can shirk your responsibilities. I’m counting every minute you’re not clocked in.”

  I had no doubt he would be. “I promise, I’ll get everything done.” I raced away, made the tea, then grabbed the scones, cream, and strawberry preserves. I bustled Alice out of the kitchen and over to a bench that overlooked the gardens.

  We settled with plates on our laps as we set to work on the delicious scones.

  I let out a sigh of relief. Everything was back to normal. Pete’s killer had been found, and I had a plate of delicious treats in front of me. It was a simple thing, but it made me smile.

  Alice slathered her scone in cream, covered it in preserves, sandwiched the top and bottom together, and took a big bite. “Yum! Solving crime works up an appetite.”

  “At least it’s solved. Dennis hated Pete. Maybe Pete taunted him about his money troubles one too many times.”

  “So he got rid of his competition,” Alice said.

  “I hope the security guards check his alibi.” My gaze went to the castle. I really wanted to be in on the questioning.

  “He’ll only lie to them about where he was,” Alice said.

  “So long as he can be placed at the scene of the crime, it’s only a matter of time before Dennis is charged.” I bit into the sweet, light scone. “Saracen and the police will soon have everything they need.”

  “All thanks to us.” Alice bumped her half-eaten scone against mine. “And now that’s over, you have something important to focus on. You have a winning cake to make.”

  My insides fluttered, and I swallowed the last of my scone. “Maybe I shouldn’t take part. I’ve had no time to prepare. The cake needs to be ready for tomorrow.”

  “Which gives you the whole afternoon and tonight if you need it. Your cooking never goes wrong. You have to enter. You’ll let down the whole castle if you don’t take part.”

  “I’m not representing Audley Castle. I’m only representing me.”

  “You’re a part of the castle. It feels like you’ve always been here.” Alice leaned against me. “I can’t remember what life was like before we had your delicious cakes to enjoy. Well, I can a little. I weighed ten pounds less and was always bored. I might be a bit fatter, but I’m a hundred times happier.”

  Warmth flooded my chest. Alice could be ditzy, but I wouldn’t have her any other way. “I feel the same.”

  “How about that roulade you made when we had the dull Ainsworth family over for dinner? Everyone raved about it. It even made their sullen teenage son smile and ask for seconds. It was the only time I heard him speak.”

  My fresh raspberry and double cream roulade had gone down well, but it didn’t feel special enough for my entry. It would also be difficult to eat without making a mess. “Maybe not that.”

  “You did that caramel marble cake with a frosted topping, the one you made for Rupert’s birthday,” Alice said. “That was so beautiful. When you cut into it, all the different colors inside were divine.”

  “That’s an idea. But I had to make six different marble cakes to get the inside just how I wanted it. I don’t have the time to do that.”

  “I’ve got it! You should do a fairy theme.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “Are you thinking fairy cakes?”

  A red scarf floated from an east turret window. It drifted down the wall and landed on top of a bush.

  “Did that come from Granny’s window?” Alice asked.

  I peered up at her windows. A tiny figure waved madly at us. “She must want something.”

  Alice shook her head as she pulled out her phone. “I’m always telling her to call or text when she needs something. Granny doesn’t trust phones. She thinks there’s always people listening in.”

  She had a point. I was convinced Campbell had listening devices all around the castle. He’d probably crept into Lady Philippa’s turret and made sure he could hear her c
onversations by planting a few bugs.

  “I’ll see what she needs.” Alice pressed a button on her phone. “Granny, is that you throwing things at us?” She put the phone on speaker and placed it on the table.

  “Am I safe now, Lady Philippa?” I asked.

  “Holly, you’re definitely not safe,” Lady Philippa said. “Can you both hear me?”

  “Of course we can,” Alice said. “What do you mean? We’ve solved the murder. We found out who killed Pete. Holly can’t be at risk.”

  “She absolutely is. I expect her to be dead within the next twenty-four hours. Now, be a dear and bring me up a plate of those lovely looking scones. And don’t be stingy with the cream.”

  I gulped as I stared at the turret. “I’m still going to die?”

  “We all have to die sometime,” Lady Philippa said cheerfully. “At least now you can be prepared. It’s important to get your affairs in order.”

  “We have got the right person, though?” I asked. “Dennis is the killer.”

  “That’s for the police to figure out,” Lady Philippa said. “I really am quite hungry. I might faint. I don’t think I’ve had food sent to me for days. My cruel daughter is always forgetting about me. One day, she’ll seal up this room and leave me to starve.”

  “You’re being silly,” Alice said. “We’ll get you some scones.” She shut off the phone and stared at me before tutting. “Don’t listen to her. She’s probably only saying it to get attention. You can’t be at risk anymore. Dennis is locked in the saloon. Kace and Mason won’t let him out.”

  I bit my bottom lip as I nodded. We couldn’t have gotten it wrong. Dennis had the perfect motive for killing Pete. I was certain that once he’d answered all their questions, there’d be nothing to worry about.

  Until then, I’d better watch my back, just in case Lady Philippa was onto something.

  ***

  My arm muscles ached as I held the final pose in my plyometric session. The sun was just nosing over the trees as I shook out my arms and legs before heading back to take a shower.

  I had no choice but to make an early start this morning. Not that I’d slept much the previous night. The few hours I’d managed to grab had been full of images of elaborate cakes, and my final competition creation turning out burned and sunken in the middle. Entering baking competitions was a stressful business.